The 2024 proxy season is just around the corner. This quick reference guide, which is intended to supplement Shearman & Sterling’s 21st Annual Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Survey, summarizes themes from the...more
On September 27th, 2023, the SEC brought charges against six officers, directors and major shareholders of public companies for repeated failures to make timely filings pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Securities...more
The U.S. Senate recently passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (the “NDAA”), which, if enacted, would subject insiders (i.e., directors, executive officers and greater than 10% shareholders) of...more
The SEC’s Division of Enforcement has increasingly put the spotlight on disclosure controls— the processes that public companies use to collect information for disclosures in their public filings. The agency recently charged...more
The 2023 proxy season is just around the corner. This quick reference guide, which is intended to supplement Shearman & Sterling’s 20th Annual Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Survey, summarizes themes from the...more
1/26/2023
/ Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Executive Compensation ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Proxy Voting ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Rule 14a-8 ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Shareholders
The 2022 proxy season is just around the corner. This quick reference guide, which is intended to supplement Shearman & Sterling’s 19th Annual Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Survey, summarizes themes from the...more
Today, Shearman & Sterling released its 19th annual Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Survey, which finds that the boards of directors of the largest 100 U.S. companies have maintained their strong focus on...more
11/4/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Management ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Corporate Strategy ,
Cybersecurity ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Equity ,
Executive Compensation ,
Human Capital ,
Shareholders
In last year’s Survey, we noted that concern for environmental and social issues (the “E” and the “S” of “ESG”) had reached an inflection point, having taken center stage from the more traditional governance issues (the “G”...more
10/2/2020
/ Best Practices ,
Board of Directors ,
Business Plans ,
Business Strategies ,
Capital Markets ,
CEOs ,
Commercial Real Estate Market ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Diversity ,
Executive Compensation ,
Golden Parachutes ,
Shareholders
Pursuant to the recently-amended Washington Business Corporation Act (WBCA), effective June 11, 2020, corporations subject to the WBCA that are public companies will be required to either have a “gender-diverse board” by...more
If you are a decision-maker or part of a COVID-19 response team at a U.S. business, you are making urgent, daily decisions that affect the health and wellbeing of your workers, customers and suppliers, as well as the...more
4/1/2020
/ Affiliated-Business Arrangements ,
Board of Directors ,
Business Interruption ,
CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Economic Injury Disaster Loans ,
Employee Retention ,
Executive Compensation ,
Federal Loans ,
Financial Stimulus ,
Health Insurance ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Payroll Taxes ,
Relief Measures ,
SBA ,
SBA Lending Programs ,
Shareholders ,
Small Business ,
Stocks ,
Tax Relief
On December 30, 2019, New York State enacted the “Women on Corporate Boards Study Act” (the “Act”), which requires the New York Department of State and the Department of Taxation and Finance to conduct a study on the number...more
Concern for environmental and social issues has reached an inflection point. While traditional governance issues that have been a staple of investor advocacy and discussion (the “G” of ESG) continue to be important,...more
9/11/2019
/ Best Practices ,
Board of Directors ,
Business Plans ,
Business Strategies ,
Capital Investments ,
Capital Markets ,
CEOs ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Golden Parachutes ,
Pay Ratio ,
Popular ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholder Activism ,
Stakeholder Engagement ,
Woman Board Members
The Delaware Supreme Court recently took the opportunity to revisit Caremark with its en banc decision in Marchand v. Barnhill, No. 533, 2018 (Del. June 19, 2019). In Marchand, the Court reversed the dismissal of a...more
7/2/2019
/ Bad Faith ,
Blue Bell Creameries ,
Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Caremark claim ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Derivative Suit ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Food Safety ,
Listeria ,
Shareholder Litigation
’Tis the season, and no, we do not mean the holiday season. Although it may seem like you just filed your 2018 proxy, the 2019 proxy season is upon us. This quick reference guide, which is intended to supplement Shearman &...more
12/21/2018
/ Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Cybersecurity ,
Diversity ,
Executive Compensation ,
Glass Lewis ,
Institutional Investors ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Pay Ratio ,
Proxy Season ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Proposals
In this newsletter, we provide a snapshot of the principal European, US and selected international governance and securities law developments of interest to European corporates.
...more
7/20/2018
/ American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah ,
Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Iran Sanctions ,
MLD5 ,
Non-GAAP Financial Measures ,
Prospectus ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholder Rights ,
UK ,
Virtual Currency
In this newsletter, we provide a snapshot of the principal Asian, US, European and selected international governance and securities law developments of interest to Asian corporates and financial institutions.
...more
2/9/2018
/ AML/CFT ,
Asia ,
Board of Directors ,
Class Action ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cryptocurrency ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
MiFID II ,
Non-GAAP Financial Measures ,
Popular ,
Securities Fraud
On October 26, 2016, the SEC proposed amendments to the proxy rules that would require the use of universal proxies in all non-exempt solicitations in contested elections of directors. The focus of the SEC proposal is to...more
Companies confer title of “Vice President” on a wide range of employees, from senior executives, in some cases, to line-level personnel, in others. While distinguishing someone functioning as a senior executive from someone...more
On July 1, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) approved a change to the Listing Rules of NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”). New Listing Rule 5250(b)(3) will require Nasdaq listed companies to publicly...more
On February 9, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed long-awaited equity hedging disclosure rules to implement Section 955 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010...more
In this issue:
- Directive Regarding Disclosure of Non-Financial and Diversity Information Published in Official Journal
- ESMA Publishes Transparency Directive Consultation on European Electronic Access Point...more
2/2/2015
/ Audits ,
Board of Directors ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
CONSOB ,
Corporate Governance ,
Ethics ,
EU ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Internal Controls ,
Market Participants ,
MiFID ,
Securities ,
Technical Standards ,
Voting Rights
On November 6, 2014, Glass Lewis & Co. released its 2015 Proxy Paper Guidelines for the United States showing the key draft policy changes for the 2015 proxy season. There are updates in the following areas:
-...more
On October 15, 2014, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) published its key draft policy changes for the 2015 proxy season. There are only two proposed updates for the United States. The first introduces a new...more
On October 21, 2013, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) published its key draft policy changes for the 2014 proxy season (the “Draft Policies”). There are only two proposed updates for the US, neither of which...more